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GOLD AND BLACK ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 28, ISSUE 1 16
Louisville had Howard Schnellen-
berger. And Greg Brohm.
"To me, the shrewdest move How-
ard Schnellenberger made was taking
Greg," Bozich said. "Greg was, in ret-
rospect, good enough to play at Lou-
isville but very few people thought he
was good enough to play at a high lev-
el (initially). By getting Greg, I think
that helped them get Jeff. They're
very close. They've always been very
close."
Schnellenberger, the ultimate
salesman and big talker, already had
a Brohm connection. He was a Flag-
et graduate who knew Oscar and al-
ready had a reputation for developing
quarterbacks. He already had won a
national championship, as the head
coach at Miami in 1983. He already
had won a Super Bowl championship,
as an assistant coach on the Dol-
phins' undefeated 1972 team, and,
thus, had a firm grasp on what it took
to prepare a player for the NFL.
It didn't hurt that on Jeff's recruit-
ing visit, Schnellenberger had the
group of other prospects eat dinner at
one restaurant while he took Jeff to another, Pat's, the
best steakhouse in town. Because, as Schnellenberger
said, "I take all my quarterbacks out, but I don't take them
out with ordinary people. The quarterbacks get preferen-
tial treatment."
Jeff certainly felt special.
"He sold me on, 'Hey, you can go somewhere else and
be a normal guy or you could come here and be a differ-
ence-maker.' So I said, 'Hey, let's try to do it here in my
backyard. I'll be a difference-maker,' and it paid off for
me," Jeff said. "You can go to any school and accomplish
what you need to, but it needs to be a fit, and I thought
that Louisville fit me and it was beneficial for me."
The city was ecstatic to keep a homegrown golden boy
in its backyard.
And that includes Jeff's childhood friend, Freibert, who
often rode to high school with Jeff. Freibert said he'll
never forget the particular morning
commute when Jeff told him he was
going to Louisville.
"I was like, 'Are you serious?' Ev-
erybody was after him. It was a neat
deal. I'm like, 'I won't say a word,
man.' But I was so happy," Freibert
said. "I grew up a Louisville fan, and
I didn't think there was a prayer he
was going to Louisville, no matter
what Schnellenberger had said. He
put a lot of pressure on him.
"At the time, Louisville football
wasn't what it is today. I shouldn't say
I didn't think they had a chance —
being at home and his family, I knew
all that was important to him. But
when every school in the country is
after you …"
And that decision just may have
changed the course of Louisville foot-
ball, people familiar with the program
said.
Schnellenberger worked through
lean years in his first several in the
program — 2-9, 3-8, 3-7-1 seasons —
but when he landed Jeff, that's when
the "meteoric rise" started, he said.
"We had made progress. (But they were) hard, hard
struggles, hard to swallow," Schnellenberger said. "But
we had to go through those first three years. Then Jeff
was in the next set of players, and it gave us the fire-
power, the strength of the team, the depth of the team,
when he became part of it. To have his brother to throw to
and his daddy to throw to them in the backyard on Sunday
and then Jeff as a quarterback, Greg was his brother, Jeff
knew him so well, he would just throw the ball to a spot
and Greg would amble over there and catch it.
"We had some great years there. That brother combi-
nation quarterback-to-receiver was highly important in
our success."
Greg, who had 45 career catches for 722 yards and four
TDs, saw the transformation of the program first-hand.
He said he had an idea that it was a rebuilding project
when he signed on, but he also believed every word
The Louisville
community so
embraced the Brohm
family — first Oscar,
an all-state high
school quarterback
at powerhouse
Flaget High School
before moving onto
quarterback U of L,
then his son Greg
starting the Trinity wave
that moved to Jeff and
youngest Brian — that
the people who were
full-throated yelling with
every touchdown throw,
every catch, every
victory may as well
have been related.